Local Board Publishing Sold Data - Thoughts?

[AaronSOLD]

NorthstarMLS to Release Limited Sold Data through Broker Reciprocity for Agent/Broker Web Sites
October 13, 2006: In the past few months, RMLS’s Board of Governors reviewed the type of real property information that is available to the general public and the means through which the information is made available. Information about active listings is widely available to the public through real estate brokers who obtain active listing information from NorthstarMLS and then display it on the Internet. Information about sold listings is increasingly available to the public, although the real estate brokerage community is not currently participating in the efficient distribution of this data to the home buying and selling public.

Sold information is widely available directly from governmental agencies and indirectly through businesses that compile the information for redistribution. These businesses are making the information increasingly easy for the public to access, although the information available is not as complete, accurate or timely as it could be.

In the Information Age, the public expects to have access to the most complete, most accurate, and most timely information available about current listings as well as properties that have sold in their own neighborhoods or in the neighborhoods where they may be considering a purchase. Enter the real estate brokerage community, which has a wealth of sold information at its disposal that is often more complete, more accurate, and more timely than any other source. More importantly, real estate agents and brokers have the experience and expertise to add considerable value to listing and sold information by making it meaningful and relevant for home buyers and sellers. Also, they want to be the ones that buyers and sellers go to first for property-related information, bringing them into the real estate professional’s sphere of influence as early as possible.

Therefore, RMLS is pleased to announce that it will distribute two years of sold content to its members which will be combined with and incorporated into RMLS’s existing standard broker reciprocity data download. We expect to have this additional data available through broker reciprocity by the end of the year. We will communicate the release date as soon as it can be scheduled. The broker reciprocity data downloaded will be refreshed each night with an additional day of sold data (and one day from the start of the two-year period dropped), so that it is always a rolling, up-to-date two-year period.

The sold content that RMLS will distribute will include information about sold listings only (i.e. listings that have closed and whose statuses have been changed to Sold or Comp Sold in NorthstarMLS). The sold content will not include expired, cancelled, or pending listing information, which members may not display publicly in any event.

As you will see, the sold information that members may display is similar to the information that is available from the public records plus some additional fields. For example, members will be able to display the sold price, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, the square footage, and tax information. In addition, members will be able to display the primary photo. Click here for a full list of allowable fields.

Not only may members display the sold information on their websites, but they may also use the sold information distributed to them (in addition to the active listing information distributed to them) to provide estimates of the value of property. They may not, however, call any estimate formed by using the distributed content a comparative (or competitive) market analysis, a CMA, or an appraisal.

Watch for more details as we get closer to the release date.

[KarenR0823]

It's a terrible idea. We are giving our livelihood away a little bit at a time

[Michael Paul Eau Claire]

Power to the people. Information gets cheaper every day, and I'm all for it. That's why I'm a flat-fee guy though.

As the release states, most of that info is already available online, you just have to know where to look for it. This shouldn't come as a huge shock in my opinion. But I appreciate you posting it, Aaron. Thanks!

[webmaster]

Is this in an attempt to provide better CMA tools to brokers and agents in order to keep pace with commercial vendors such as Zillow?

I suppose it does level the playing field IF this information is already available publically, but not to brokers in a usable form. Of course if it is available publically then brokers could hire their own tech teams and develop similar technologies, but honestly what small brokerage has time or budget for that?

Question - previous to this announcement what was the policy on brokers showing sold data for listings other than their own office closings?

[AaronSOLD]

Brokers have always been allowed to use and have access to sold data, they just couldn't publish it online.

What this will allow is Zillow and others to make much better estimates on a property because they will have significantly more detailed and accurate data than the county provides to them.

At the end of the day it will still be next to impossible to definitively price a property that has not been personally viewed by the agent. What this does open up though is more interactive features on web sites to get consumers (both buyers and sellers) to revisit a web site and more information in which they may have questions.

Just like posting the MLS listings online has been a boon to many brokers, I think we'll see the same with sold data. The trick is to build the most user-friendly & robust tool possible... and that is where Zillow has a running head-start.

I think this does signal another important shift in the business...

[atxrealtor]

Oh yeah, I'm sure all those people whose sold info become a free-for-all will be very happy. Here in Texas the final sale price is never public.

In the end the MLS board will have to decide how much of the hand that feeds them (realtors who pay dues) they are willing to bite just to sell out to a few more scam sites like Zillow.

[AaronSOLD]

In Minnesota, the country registrar records a Certificate of Real Estate Value, which shows the final purchase price. This data is then added to their property tax/information system, which is available online.

Are you saying that they don't do this in Texas?

Word on the street is that there was a suit in California regarding a broker wanting to publish sold data online and that local MLS lost the suit. If that's the case, Zillow and/or others may pursue this in other areas.

Remember that the MLS board is the Realtor organization... it is less biting the hand that feeds them as it is cutting themselves off at the knees :-)

In the end, our society is becoming more open and transparent. We cannot stop change, but together we can help shape what happens to our industry. I still have larger concerns about ethical behavior, competency, and government regulation than I do about competing business models.

[atxrealtor]

In Texas, a person can have a deed which does not list the sales price. The mortgage documents are recorded though, so you can always find out the loan amount. That's why Zillow poops its pants when doing appraisals here. It uses homes from halfway across town and gives weird numbers. There's no data for it to look at.

Also, our local MLS board recently passed rules that agents can't use sold data for advertising purposes. For example, I can't print out sold stats and send them out as flyers to try and get business. What we can do is claim that a certain house got sold, and give it's listing price.

I guess in other states you get that info either way, so there's no difference. As long as they don't turn the MLS into a free-for-all, I'm ok with that.

[atxrealtor]

Btw, while I'm cool with agents displaying this info, I'm NOT ok with Zillow getting it. If the MLS board receives money for information that's the product of Realtors' efforts, either we should get a cut of it, or Zillow should go somewhere else. Those scum suckers are using our efforts to steal our leads and sell them right back to us. And then they have the nerve to point out how realtors make too much commission.

[AaronSOLD]

Ahh but here's the rub: they have to be members of the local board to get that info...

Chew on that one...